September 01, 2010

Baked Chicken Wings with Anheuser Busch Wing Sauce

Nieces Jordan and Sydney came over one night last week and while Jordan (thank you, Girlie!) mowed the lawn, Sydney made baked chicken wings for dinner. Honestly, out of all the things I've cooked over the years that most people never have, one of the things I've never made that most people have is chicken wings. We just got a not great blood report back on Gene so we're steadfastly back on the heart diet, trying to eat less refined carbs and less fat so I also was going for baked wings rather than fried. Sort of a two-for one experiment.

One of the interesting things I found out about Sydney is maybe a clue to how she learns. We all learn better one way or the other: verbally or from writing. I think Jordan is more of a verbal girl but what I didn't realize until that night was that Sydney is more of a reading/writing girl. Sydney was a couple of months premature (ruptured membranes and other complications) and spent a week on a vent in our NICU. She has residual hearing loss and learning challenges from her birth. One of her weaknesses is short term memory loss especially when following multi-step directions.

I had the coating bowls set out in order but only three: milk, whole wheat white flour mix, egg/water, so she had to go back to the middle for another dredging of flour before laying the wings on the baking sheets. It really threw her. She couldn't remember the fourth step. I tried verbally cueing her "1, 2, 3, 4, and in the pan" and she remembered better but still not enough to finish all the wings without prompting. On a hunch, I grabbed a pad of sticky notes and a magic marker and labeled the bowls "1", "2, 4", "3". From then on she had no problems remembering the steps and finished getting the rest of the wings on the pans.

It was a beautiful "AHA!" moment!

Jordan got to be our first taste-tester but it was a chore for her in between us yelling at her to eat it so I could take pic and her complaining "But it just came out of the oven--it's hot!" Geez, such a little thing. Doesn't she know she's supposed to be willing to burn herself for my blog? The blog is ALL IMPORTANT!~ Hehehehe

Thanks for being our taste-tester, LoLo! You were a good sport!

By the way, we all enjoyed the wings themselves but the sauce wasn't universally popular. We used Anheuser Busch mild wing sauce from the grocery. Jordan and I thought it was okay. Sydney thought it was too hot. Gene thought it was too vinegary. So that's our review. Baking the wings went over well though. They had that baked fried chicken tenderness so were tasty on their own. Next time we'll just pick a different sauce to toss them at the end...or no sauce at all and let everyone scavange the fridge for condiments.

Wash and pat dry the chicken pieces. Dip each piece into the bowls in order: #1, #2, #3, #2 again, and lay pieces close together but not touching on to rimmed baking sheets spray with cooking spray. When all the wings are dredged, lightly spray tops with cooking spray to help facilitate browning.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until chicken pieces are nicely browned and sizzling. Be aware that boneless breast strips will cook faster than boned full wings. We baked both so I held out the breast strips on a different pan and put them into the oven 15 minutes later than the full jointed pieces of chicken.

When chicken is baked, and while still hot, remove from baking sheets with tongs and place into an extra large mixing bowl. Pour over commercially prepared sauce and toss lightly to coat. Serve with bleu cheese dressing and fresh vegetables if desired.

We usually bake our wings - I agree, they taste great! The sticky notes were a great idea for Jordan! Maybe she can apply that to other areas. Sorry to hear of Gene's results but I'm sure you're up to the challenge of healthy cooking! We're going through the same thing with my husband, so we need to be a bit more careful!